Rotary printing machine with flat printing plate



W. B. MILES Dec. 25, 1956 ROTARY PRINTING MACHINE WITH FLAT PRINTING PLATE Filed Sept. 3. 1952 '7 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR ATTORNEYS W. B. MILES ROTARY PRINTINGMACHINE WITH FLAT PRINTING PLATE Filed Sept. 5. 1952 7 Sheets-Sheet 2 R O T N E V m ATTORNEYS W. B. MILES Dec. 25, 1956 ROTARY PRINTING MACHINE WITH FLAT PRINTING PLATE 7 Sheets-Sheet 3 wmx muw Filed Sept. 3, 1952.

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9- "JJ PAY ro'n-IE HAL. QRDER 0F zmwsrr I 2 I :53 DOLLARS '2 3 BLANK NATIONAL BANK I j N 5w wmgmm. ML INVENTOR ATTORNEYS United States Patent "ice ROTARY PRINTING MACHINE WITH FLAT PRINTING PLATE William B. Miles, Bedford, Va. Application September 3, 1952, Serial No. 307,619

2. Claims. (Cl. 101-212) Printing machines or presses for printing upon successivelypre sented individual paper sheetshave long been available and are currently widely employed in printing information which definitely identifies the check as one utilized or to be utilized by that particular, depositor.

Banking establishments encourage the use of such per- 'sonalized checks, but do not in the usual case have means immediately athand for printing them for their various depositors. The printing machine which comprises the subject matter of the present invention is of such character that it may be used with great effectiveness, in banks or printing establishments, for the purpose of printing upon checks of standard type data or information which relates particularly to a certain individual or organization,

the several elements togethercomprising the machine havingbee'n especiallydesigned and arranged for the accomplishment of this particular purpose. It will nevertheless be apparent to one skilled in the art that the machine of the present invention embodies features which may be incorporated with great advantage in sheet-by-sheet printing presses which vary widely in size and purpose and that,insofar as these features are concerned, theinvention isof wide scope.

I One embodiment of the improved printing machine,

selected for disclosure by way of example, is illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which:

. Figure 1 is a side elevation of this embodiment, showingthe machine in its entirety; I

Figure 2 is a top plan view of the machine, broken r 1 away atone place to show interior details;

Figure3 is a section on line 3-3 of Figure 2; g

i Figure 3a is an illustration, inside elevation, of several of the movable parts of the machine which are shown in Figure 3, these parts being shown in positions different from those in which theyare shown in Figure 3; p

Figure 4is a section on line 4-4 of Figure 2;

Figures 4a, 4b and 4c are diagrammatic, showing the printing and impression cylinders in severalsuccessive relative positions, before, during and after a printingoperation; i I a Figure 5 is a section on line 5-5 of Figure 4;

Figure 6 is a section on line 6- -6 of Figure 2;

Figure 7 is a section on line 7- -7 of Figure 4;

Figure8 is a plan view of the printing member or cylinder; I i

Figures 9 and 10 are perspective views of individual operating elements of the machine, respectively;

Figure 11 is a perspective view of a detail; and

. Figures'lZ and 13 are illustrations of which show. the 9 axis of axle 20.

2,775,196 Patented Dec. 25, 1956 printed faces of checks which have been passed through the machine, showing the names of a depositor printed longitudinally and transversely of the longitudinal axes of the checks, respectively.

As it is preferred to employ, in the printing of checks, plates or type carriers the printing faces of which are disposed in a comon plane, the machine illustrated is provided with means for receiving and retaining such a printing element although, as clearly apparent, the printing couple comprises rotatable printing and impression members. The printing element shown in the drawings is in the nature of an elongated block 10 rectangular in longitudinal and cross section, a plurality of parallel ribs 11, T-shaped in cross section, projecting from one side of the block and defining elongated intermediate slots which slidably receive printing members 12 the printing faces of which are disposed in a plane. Members 12 may be individual letters or lines of letters cast together to form a name or an address.

The printing member may be cast, with the lettering integral therewith, and may differ substantially in size and shape from that illustrated, without requiring more than minor alteration in the means provided to support it during operation of the machine.

The printing block 10 which is illustrated in Figures 4 and 5 is secured to the printing cylinder, which is generally indicated by the letter P, by means which permits its ready application or detachment, such means comprising the channel member 13 and set screw 14. Channel member 13 is secured to the cross web 15 of the impression cylinder P by a screw 16 and the design is such that the channel 13 may be disposed with its longitudinal axis in a plane normal to the axis of revolution of the cylinder P, as in Figures 4 and 5, or in a plane which includes this axis, as in Figure 8. Thus, at the will of the operator, the machine may be caused to print a legendextending either longitudinally or transversely of a sheet such as a check, Figures 12 and 13 being illustrations of checks upon which the name of a depositor has been printed in these different fashions.

A printing member such as that shown maybe quickly inserted in the machine and as quickly removed. Many such members may be stored in small space so that it is easily possible for a bank, for instance, to make and retain printing elements for all or a large proportion of its depositors. This in turn makes it possible for the user to quickly and economically print, at widely spaced intervals, a relatively small number of personalized checks for any certain depositor for whom a printing plate has been made. i A printing machine having rotary printing and impression cylinders may not ordinarily utilize, as printing members, plates or arrangements of type: in the printing surfaces disposed in a plane and, in order that this may be done, the machine of the present invention departs from the conventional in a number of important respects. It will be described in detail and the novel features particularly pointed out in the claims.

The printing cylinder P is mounted for rotation about a fixed horizontally extending axis, its supporting shaft being indicated at 20. The ends of shaft 20 are rotatably supported in bearings 21 which are in turn mounted upon the printing machine side plates 22 which plates, together with the base member 23 and the bottom and top cross connecting elements 24 and 25, respectively, comprise the principal parts of the frame. The printing cylinder P comprises essentially a hollow cylindrical hub 26 which closely encircles the axle 20 and the spaced parallel webs 27 and 28 respectively, disposed in planes normal to the Webs 27 and 28 are also interconnected by the flat web 15 previously mentioned and, if additional cross bracing is needed for assuring rigidity, by other integral transversely extending elements. Webs 27 and 28 are provided with oppositely extending similar peripheral flanges 29 and 30, respectively, the outer faces 31 and 32 of which function importantly in the operation of the machine. The webs 27. and 28 are generally circular and the flanges 29 and 30 are. generally cylindrical but, as maybe seen clearly in Figures 3 and 4, each such web is flattened in the vicinity of the printing memberll), the flanges 29 and 30 likewise, so that the outer faces of the flanges at this point are disposedsubstantially in theplane of the printing surfaces of the printing elements 12. The arrangement is such that, if the surface of a flat sheet of paper is in contact with the flattened portions of the outwardly facing surfaces-31 and 32. of flanges 29 and 30, the printing faces of elements 12 will contact that surface. V

' In the normal operation .of the machine, however, 'theiprinting means is caused to make rolling contact with the surface oflthe sheet to be printed so that the letters of a line are successively applied to the paper, beginning at one end and progressing evenly toward the other. In order that this may be accomplished, the impression cylinder, which is generally indicated at C, is mounted for movement toward and away from the axis of the printing cylinder and is normally urged toward the printing cylinder axis by resilient means. Thus, the shaft 35 upon which the cylinder C is mounted has its ends seated in aligned apertures formed, respectively, in the ends of the two parallel, generally horizontal, levers 36 and 37, each of these levers being pivotally mounted, intermediate its ends, as at 38, upon the frame of the machine. A helical spring is associated with each lever and constantly pulls downwardly upon that end of the lever which is remote from the impression cylinder, the cylinder being thus constantly urged to move upwardly. One of these springs is indicated at 39.

The impression cylinder comprises essentially a steel tube 40 having a rubber covering 41, the ends of tube 40 being mounted upon discs 42 and 43 which are in turn mounted for free rotation upon shaft 35. The cylinder also includes end discs 44 and 45, respectively, formed of fiber or plastic, or combinations thereof, and also mounted for free rotation upon shaft 35. Because of the action of the helical springs upon the levers 36 and 37 the cylindricalsurfaces 46 and 47 of the discs 44 and 45 are maintained in rolling contact with the surfaces 31 and 32 of the flanges 29-and 30 of discs 27 and 28 at all times except when these surfaces are separated by the margins of a paper blank being printed upon, a check so positioned being at B in Figure 5. It may be preferred to maintain surfaces 31 and 32 out of contact with the cover 41 of the impression cylinder when there is no interposed blank B and cam members 50. and 51 are provided for this purpose, these cams being fixed on shaft 20 and rotatable therewith and having cylindrical peripheral surfaces centered on the axis of shaft 20. These cam surfaces, indicated at'52 and 53 in Figure 5, engage cylindrical surfaces 54 and 55 of the discs 44 and 45 during much of the angular travel of the printing cylinder and prevent contact of surfaces 31 and 32 with the impression cylinder. Just prior to movement of the printing characters 12 into contact with blank B the surfaces 52 and 53 disengage surfaces 54 and 55, respectively, so that the spring-pressed impression cylinder presses the blank strongly against the printing characters andthe surfaces 31 and 32 during the entire printing operation, after which: the cams 50 and 51 again engage surfaces 54 and-55.

During printing, therefore, the axis of the impression cylinder first moves toward, and then recedes from, the axis of the printing cylinder, as indicated in Figures 4a, 4b and 4c. It is also clear that the linearvelocity of the surface of the blank B will be the same as the linear velocity of the printingfaces of the printing characters 'which engage the blank, the impression cylinder being free to revolve upon its supporting shaft :and being rotated only by frictional forces applied to it from the printing cylinder through the blank B. Hence the legend printed upon the blank willfbe clean cut and not blurred. This legend may be the name and address of a bank depositor, as indicated at 60 in Figure 12, extending lengthwise of a check, or may be applied transversely as indicated at 61 in Figure 13. As previously explained, the printing member may be disposed as shown in Figures 4 and 5, or in parallelism with the axis of the printing cylinder, its functioning being the same in both cases. Naturally the text of the legend may be varied at will and the blanks being printed may vary substantially in shape and purpose.

Blanks are fed into the machine singly by hand and the printing cylinder will rotate rapidly and in a substantially continuous manner if sheets to be printed are introduced in quick succession. The printing cylinder will not rotate, however, unless the blank is properly positioned between printing and impression cylinders. The motor which drives the machine is indicated at M. Itv is operatively connected to pulley 62 by belt 59 so that pulley 62 is constantly rotated when the machine is in use. Pulley 62 is rotatably mounted upon the fixed shaft 63 and has attached to it. a pulley 64 of much smaller diameter. Pulley '64 is in turn operatively connected to largediameter pulley 65 mounted on the printing cylinder shaft 20, by means of a belt 66. A second pulley 67 of small diameter, attached to pulley.64, is connected to shaft-68, upon which. the feed roller 69 is mounted, by means of a belt. 70 and pulley 71.

Whenever the driving motor M. is in operation, therefore, the driving forces are transmitted to. the printing cylinder and feed roller 69. The feed roller will rotate continuously,.but the driving cylinder may rotate only when a paper blank to. be printed is positioned properly intermediate the printing and impression cylinders, being positively held against rotation in the absence of a properly positioned blank by means to be described, the belt 66 slipping over the pulley 64 when the cylinder is so held.

The machine disclosed is designed for hand feeding although, withsmallmodification, an automatic feeder may be employed. The table over which sheets are serially fed is indicatedat 74 and is shown to beapertured at 75 to receive the top ofthe feed roll 69. Above the feed roll 69 is the ball 76 which makes rolling contact with the upper surface of a blank B positioned upon the table 74, ball-76 being rotatably caged within an aperture formed in the enlarged end portion of aspring arm 77 the opposite end of which is aflixed to the frame of the machine. The spring arm 77 exerts a light downward pressure upon ball 76 at all times and thus enables the feed roll 69 to frictionally grip the interposed leading edge of a blank and to frictionally feed this blank. forwardly to be printed.

A blank so frictionally gripped will be fed rapidly forward, theprinting and impression cylinders :beingmaintained' in. spaced relation by the earns 50' and 51, until 'its leading edge strikes the upwardly extending terminal portion 80 of the front stop 81, the stop being then in the position in which it is shown in dotted lines in'Figure 4 and infull lines in Figure 3. Preferably there are two such members.81, as shown in Figure 10. Forward movement of the blank is halted at this point,uthe feed roller 69,. while still rotating, being ineffective; to move the paper forwardly. During this forward travel of the blank B it lifts the. blank detector. finger 82 which constitutes an element of the printing cylinder: locking mechanism, so that this finger is lifted :from the. position in which :it is shown in dotted lines in Figure 4. to'the position in which it is illustrated in full lines::in.ithis figure. 'When finger 82uoccupies. the position in which it is shownv in:- full lines thercylinder: isfree. tor-lrotate,

but the paper. stop remains .inapositionlo' hold the: blank B -againstmovement :.until .the '2 cams 50:. and-ii 51 iihave disengaged the members 44 and 45, whereupon the impression cylinder will move upwardly to the position in which it is shown in Figure 5, the margins of the blank will be gripped, and the printing of the blank will take placeas the blank advances. Shortly after the printing operation has been completedthe cams 50 and 51 will again become effective to separate the printing and impression cylinders and the blank will pass out of the machine over the curved plate .84, through an aperture in which the terminal 80 of the stop member passes upon its working and return strokes.

The detector finger 82 is fixed upon a shaft 85 which is mounted for oscillation in apertures formed in the side members of the frame. One end of shaft 85 lies without the frame and supports an elongated curved arm 86 (Figure 9). When finger 82 has been raised by a blank, arm 86 is in the position in which it is shown in dotted lines in Figure 6 and the swinging rod 87, which it engages, is in the position in which it is shown in dotted lines in that figure, moving to that position under the influence of gravity and pushing arm 86 before it. If, however, there is no blank in position to be engaged by detector finger 82, the arm 86 will move to the position in which it is shown in full lines (Figures 6) and the swinging rod 87 will be moved to the position in which it is shown in full lines in that figure.

Rod 87 is pivoted at 88 to a latch 89 which is in turn pivotally connected to the frame, as by the stud 90. Latch 89 has a portion 91 which extends transversely of the machine, through a notch 92 formed in the adjacent side plate, so as to lie, when the latch is in operative position as shown in full lines in Figure 6, in the path of movement of an impact member 93 slidably housed in a cylindrical support 94 rigidly secured to side member 27 of the printing cylinder at a point adjacent the printing member 10, but upon the other side of member 27.

In the event that latch portion 91 is in lowered position, impact member 93 will, when the printing cylinder has turned in the direction of the arrow A (Figure 3) until the printing member is uppermost, strike this portion of the latch (Figures 3 and 11) thus halting the printing cylinder and causing the belt 66 to slip relatively to one or both of the pulleys which it engages. To cushion the shock the impact member is backed by a helical compression spring 96. The printing cylinder may not rotate until the latch is raised. Power for lifting the latch is derived from the motor M through cam 97, attached to pulley 71 and rotating therewith, and the reciprocable thrust member 98 slidably mounted in bracket 99, the lower end of member 98 being maintained in contact with the surface of the cam by spring 100. It is apparent that the printing cylinder will not be halted so long as sheets or blanks are passing into the machine in such manner that detector finger 82 is maintained in raised position since the latch 89 will be in raised position whenever the impact member 93 approaches, through the action of cam 97, thrust member 98, and swinging rod 87, cam 97 of course moving in timed relationship to the printing cylinder. Should the paper supply on the feed board fail, however, the depending rod will swing out of the path of movement of the thrust member 98 and the latch will not be lifted. Thus the printing member will not move toward the printing cylinder unless there is a blank to be printed properly positioned in the machine.

It is, of course, necessary to remove the front stop or guide from the path of the blank B before the blank can be printed. This is done simultaneously with, or just before, the movement of the impression cylinder into gripping engagement with the blank by simple mechanism actuated by lever 37, which is one of the levers which supports the impression cylinder. This mechanism includes the multiplying lever 102, pivotally mounted at 103 upon the frame, the shorter arm of the lever con- 6 tacting the underside of lever 37 at the end thereof and the longer arm being in contact with a curved arm 104 fixed upon shaft 105, which is the shaft upon which stops 81 are secured. It will be clearly seen that, with an arrangement of the kind, the front stops will be in operative position whenever the impression cylinder has been lowered (Figure 3) and in inoperative position whenever the irnpression cylinder has been moved into spaced relationship to the printing cylinder by the cams 50 and If desired the impression cylinder can be locked in inoperative position to permit repeated idle rotations of the printing cylinder, as for inking. Thus supports 106 fixed upon shaft 107 may be turned by means of handle 108 so as to underlie and support those ends of levers 36 and 37 which are remote from the impression cylinder. These levers may againeasily be freed for action by rocking shaft 107 to the position in which these members are shown in full lines in Figure .3.

The means for inking the printing elements 12 may conveniently comprise rollers 110, 111 and 112, the two last-mentioned rollers being supported upon trunnions movable in vertical slots formed in the side members of the frame and the first-mentioned roller being mounted upon levers 112 urge by springs 113 in such manner as to bring its ink carrying surface into contact with the printing elements as they pass. End pieces of the inking roller 110 have cylindrical surfaces which operatively engage the cylindrical surfaces 31 and 32 of the printing cylinder so that the inking; cylinder moves toward and away from the axis of shaft 35, during the operation of the machine in substantially the same way that the impression cylinder does.

It will be appreciated that in adapting the machine to the printing of blanks which vary in size and shape, and in the purpose for which they are to be used, the design and arrangement of the several elements of the invention may be modified without departure from the invention.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a printing machine in combination, a rotary printing cylinder having a segment removed therefrom to provide a flattened surface thereon, printing members removably mounted exclusively on said flattened surface, all of the type element thus being disposed substantially in the same plane, an impression cylinder, pivotally mounted means supporting said impression cylinder for bodily movement toward and away from the axis of said printing cylinder, means urging said impression cylinder into contact with said printing cylinder, cam means carried by said printing cylinder for maintaining said impression cylinder out of engagement with the major portion of the cylindrical surface of said printing cylinder but permitting engagement with the flattened portion thereof to effect a printing operation, said impression cylinder being freely rotatable with respect to tis supporting means and during a printing operation being rotated solely by frictional engagement with said printing cylinder, a stop for the leading edge of a sheet to be printed positioned on the delivery side of said couple and means actuated by the movement of said pivotally mounted means to render said stop ineffective when said printing and impression members move into printing relationship.

2. In a printing machine, in combination, a rotary printing cylinder having a segment removed therefrom to provide a flattened portion thereon, a member having a flat face carrying a plurality of type elements, all of said elements being disposed on said face within the same plane, a mounting in the flattened portion of said cylinder for receiving said type carrying member with all of said elements being disposed within the limits of said flattened portion and parallel thereto, said mounting including clamping means for removably securing said type carrying member therein, an impression cylinder, means supporting said impression cylinder for rotation about its ReferencesCited in the' file. of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 615,107 Schwarzchild Nov. 29, 1898 8 Jahn Feb. 20,. Cooley Oct. 14, Redner Nov. 18, Eskholme June 21, Weide Apr. 16, .Germann Dec. 1, Paxton June 15, Neal Apr. 14, Oden Sept. 11, Bosch Sept. 21,

FOREIGN PATENTS Germany Oct. 27, 

